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Work is beginning on a $1.35 million Regional Military Museum in Houma.
“We have been planning this for several years,” museum board president C.J. Christ said.
Construction on the first of two phases of the project – scheduled to open in February 2014 – includes a 6,000-square-foot building with an open atrium along the 42-foot ceiling. Terrebonne Parish voters approved a property tax in 2010 to fund the facility.
The site is situated on the north side of the current site on Barrow Street. Hampered by the cramped space, Christ said the museum isn’t able to display all the items collected.
“We will have the ability to display more of our artifacts that are currently in storage,” said board vice president Will Theriot. “We have weapons and a TBM Torpedo Bomber from World War II that visitors have not ever seen. Former President George H.W. Bush flew one of those when he served in World War II.
“We also have some other military vehicles in storage that will be at the new building.”
Christ said the museum hopes to add a full-sized Army tank and helicopter, too. Items are leased from the U.S. Army for display. He said the museum has completed the paperwork to have the equipment delivered.
The second phase of the project includes another building, which will attach to the atrium. The cost and start date for that project has yet to be determined.
“It may be five years from now,” Christ said. “We hoped to have enough money from the tax to fund everything, but we used extra money from the tax to purchase additional property across the street.”
Once the museum is complete, Theriot anticipates an increase in foot traffic, which currently averages 720 visitors monthly. He expects approximately 1,000 visitors when the museum is fully operational.
C.J. Christ, president of the Regional Military Museum Board, stands in front of the future site of the museum’s new building. Work has begun at the site, and the structure is scheduled to be complete by February 2014.
